The Staredown
by sir wilfrederick
Summary: [They watched Cas and El watch each other. Both were so goddamn serious and deadpan and it was really starting to creep him out. He wanted to know who would win, but this was just getting ridiculous. "So, uh... got a way to get El's attention?"]


It had been a while since either of them blinked, Dean noticed while checking his watch. Sam and Hop were in the corner talking about what had happened over the last few years in their little town of Hawkins, Indiana (Cas had pulled them back in time specifically to talk to him at _this_ point in time because... maybe there was a little mishap and they were trying to figure out how a little girl had opened the gates to... whatever). Nancy and Jonathan had gone off somewhere—Dean would bet his last clean pair of socks that it was to go have sex, what with the heated looks they were giving each other and all. Steve and his hair were huffing in the background, trying to get the kids to finish their homework and eat a snack before they went off to play D&D—the _nerds_. Dean kind of wanted to ask if he could join, but figured he better not—Mike had probably worked too hard on the campaign to add another person on the fly and it would probably be really fuckin weird for an almost forty-year-old to play D&D with kids who had barely hit puberty yet.

Anyway.

Back to the staring match.

Cas and El were just... staring at each other. Dean didn't even know _why_. They were all being introduced and when it came to them they just stopped and... stared. For like an hour now. Okay. Maybe more like ten minutes. And Dean didn't want to interrupt because Smitey McSmiteypants was a scary mofo and Mike had implied that El was kind of a badass—as long as he wasn't being a total kid and greatly exaggerating. But El did look "bitchin'"—not his phrase—and he didn't want to find out if she really had powers. He'd had enough of that with Sammy, thank you very much.

Though it was kinda funny because the kid hardly came up to Cas' chest.

"Why are they still staring at each other?" Mike asked from his elbow.

"'Cause they're weird? I dunno."

"True." Dean felt the kid's exaggerated shrug. Everything he did was exaggerated. And kind of dramatic. Were all preteen/teenagers like that?

They watched Cas and El watch each other. Both were so goddamn serious and deadpan and it was really starting to creep him out. He wanted to know who would win, but this was just getting ridiculous. "So, uh... got a way to get El's attention?"

"Eggos, probably."

"Start cookin' 'em up."

Dean followed Mike to the kitchen. He was a kid so he needed supervised, right? When did kids stop needing supervision in the kitchen? Not like Cas couldn't be a badass and fix it if something went wrong, but whatever.

He did _not_ flinch when the eggos popped out of the toaster. His glare at Mike silenced the sniggers but did not wipe the smirk off his face. The twerp had it comin'. Dean just had to think of an appropriate prank.

They went back to the living room. The two were _still_ staring at each other. He caught Hop and Sam's eyes and shrugged with an exaggerated eye roll. Hop just rolled his eyes with a fond smile when he saw the plate of eggos. Dean took the plate from Mike.

"Hey—"

"It's not fair to _make_ El lose," Dean interrupted the whining. "So I'm going to make them _both_ lose."

"That makes no sense."

"Of course it does." He held the plate in front of El's nose and leaned forward into Cas' face. "Come on, weirdos. Join the rest of us."

The plate disappeared from his hands. _Crunch crunch crunch_ quickly followed. Cas blinked owlishly at him.

"Dean?"

"Welcome back."

Cas got that kinda frowny look on his face, as if he was displeased but not _quite_ smitey. "We were having a conversation."

"Looked like a whole lotta starin' and not a lot of talkin' to me, Cas."

Uh oh. Angry squinty eyes. Abort!

"Wanna try an eggo?"

Did the kid seriously _growl_ at him? He turned to look down at her. She had her arm curled around the plate possessively, pressing it as far into her body as she could without dropping the precious food. The glare did not make him want to step back. No sir. Dean just kind of hoped she didn't go all Golem on them.

"El," drawled Hop from the corner. "What have we talked about?"

Without taking her scary eyes off of Dean—great, now _he_ was in a staring match with her—she replied in perfect stilted monotone, "We share the eggos with friends."

"Well?"

With a glare that could probably flay him ten ways from Sunday, El tore off a tiny piece of an eggo and thrust it out to Cas. Cas took it politely, with a, "Thank you, Eleven." Dean could practically feel the confusion radiating from Cas as he popped the tiny bite into his mouth. And she wouldn't stop _glaring_ at him.

Yeah, Dean lost that staring contest. He couldn't help it. The girl was kinda creepy. Cas was chewing his piece with a thoughtful look on his face. After he swallowed, he gave an honest to God smile.

Okay. It was tiny. And mostly just in his eyes. But it was _there_. "I greatly enjoyed that."

A full eggo was held up between them. And the smile on El's face was all sorts of adorable and awkward. But it worked. Dean just hoped it didn't set off another staring contest.


End file.
